In the last few years, Berlin has become a major destination for highly educated, critically minded young people from Turkey (the so-called ›new wave‹). While most of them are not political refugees in the classical sense, they felt that they had to leave their home country. Stories of displacement and loss evolve into stories of re-making and solidarity in an urban environment that is marked by earlier waves of migration. This panel is about how those stories engender art works and projects that seek to create solidarity.

This panel is the third part of three panel discussions on Saturday, 4th of May:

14:00 In the Blink of A Bird: Panel »What’s Not Happening in Istanbul«
16:30 In the Blink of A Bird: Panel »Art At Stake?«

In countries racing towards autocracy, what is the position artists can take against the skillful plots of fear-inducing politics? How is their work affected by this? What type of expression is possible? What paths are taken?

This panel is the second part of three panel discussions on Saturday, 4 May:

14:00 In the Blink of A Bird: Panel »What’s Not Happening in Istanbul«
19:00 In the Blink of A Bird: Panel »’New Wave’ Migration from Turkey«

In the beginning of the 2000s, fertile ground led artistic production to flourish in Istanbul. Financial support for art was on the rise, as were multiple independent institutions. But today, the prevalence of self-censorship in culture and arts organisations has become the norm. There are fewer funding possibilities, and institutions are closing due to economic problems.
As conservatism and nationalism continues to grow on an international scale, political oppression, censorship and violence is increasing day by day in Turkey.
Artists were forced to change their production practices. In these political economical conditions, what are the new methods of production and expression for artists? And which new forms of exhibition-making and financing can withstand the pressure of the current situation?

This panel is the first part of three panel discussions on Saturday, 4 May:

16:30 In the Blink of A Bird: Panel »Art At Stake?«
19:00 In the Blink of A Bird: Panel »’New Wave’ Migration from Turkey«

17:30
Performance (EN)
Sis Collective »In the Blink of A Bird (second rendition)«
In this performance the members and collaborators of Sis explore in the realm of bureaucracy. They claim to consult, guide and counsel the visitors through the exhibition, through the paperwork, through unvoiced complications and to a Next Stage.
This performance is the modified second rendition of the first »In the Blink of A Bird«, realized in Depo İstanbul in 2017. Since the performers will be able to consult a limited number of people, Sis collective suggests that you make an appointment online filling out this form: https://forms.gle/qSEBiXkvZykjo1be8
>> Members of Sis advise you to be ready to encounter questions like »Are you able to eat fresh coriander?« or »Have you ever been to a courthouse?« and they say that it is ok to come with a friend because no man is an island, right?(more…)

The project »In the Blink of A Bird« was initiated by the artist collective Sis*. Working collaboratively, Sis negotiates themes of freedom of expression, bureaucracy, and immigration. In Turkey, print and radio media in particular are increasingly subject to regulations that restrict freedom of speech. To demonstrate the subversive potential of these media, the artists of the collective chose techniques from these fields for their work. (more…)

An audiovisual improvisation of live drawing and electronic music. Ceren Oykut’s surprising, tribal and tameless lines are telling stories of urban transformation, animals and language while accompanied by the purely live synthesized sonic waves of FezayaFirar, which swing between acyclic industrial drone¬ and rhythmscapes.

such as why are we here? did we choose to be here?
[you are here – on weisestr, 12049, berlin]
on the northeast corner of Tempelhofer Feld under the shade of the trees
the duo encounters an 8-circuit Labyrinth. circle the goal and find
yourself by turns farther and closer.

“Is the crime of humanity only subject to trial when it hurts the lives of Europeans? Why some deaths are remembered and others have to be forgotten? What distinguishes human beings from animals is the ability to speak on behalf of evil. Crime is a symbol of our freedom.” Jacques Verges (Devil’s Advocate) Verges and his special technique “rupture defense” was challenging the legitimacy of the court and turning it into a debate on the injustice of colonialism.
We are neither a lawyer nor we are trying to establish a court and looking for a suspect. We are the witnesses of our times who will tell the stories. Through our films, we can reveal-discuss the normalization and ignorance of violence.
Savaş Boyraz, (in collaboration with Mahkum Abi) depicts a contemporary reading of Picasso’s Guernica in the light of recent warfare in Cizre-Kurdistan. Ezgi’s film is about pheasant hunting which has been a ritualized performance of manhood since ancient times.

To write a novel is seen as a monumental undertaking to accomplish in one’s lifetime. None of us has written a novel before and to take on this task together, forming a temporary writing society means something new to all of us. Believing in realising a novel in a timeframe of one month introduces already a form of possible failure. Embracing this defeat we will work ’til the end.

To write a novel is seen as a monumental undertaking to accomplish in one’s lifetime. None of us has written a novel before and to take on this task together, forming a temporary writing society means something new to all of us. Believing in realizing a novel in a timeframe of one month introduces already a form of possible failure. Embracing this defeat we will work ’til the end.

Performer and choreographer Ayşe Orhon collaborates with musician and sound engineer Burak Tamer for a performance that considers today’s body as geography.
They dig thoroughly into the territories of human sound in relation to movement, integrating live voice processing.

Ceren Oykut expands the action of drawing with light and shadow. She brings her drawing practice onstage, performing live drawing accompanied by
experimental electronic duo FezayaFirar’s uncut, improvised performance. Burak Tamer is also a member of Istanbul’s avant-rock band Replikas, and
FezayaFirar will join for the first time to weave sound in space.
The evening takes its name “Figures in Air” from the book by Micah Silver about audio’s impact on human behavior and social space. Drawing,
human voice, sound, and movement meet in the gallery space with collaborations by different artists.

NO (B)ORDERS is to be understood as a universal political outcry coming directly out of the project space art scene. It stands for an open worldview, the artistic recapturing of urban space, as well as the preservation of autonomy and diversity for project spaces and initiatives. Four internationally active project spaces and initiatives were selected through an open call for this exhibition, based on artworks that are clearly positioned against discrimination and repression, instead displaying ways forward toward communication and freedom. The group exhibition allows not only for an encounter with different forms of reflection and expression, but also offers a space for spontaneous art actions and further discussion.

Beyond the events and presentations at Babylon, Mutterzunge also presents several off-site projects. First among these collaborations is an exhibition entitled “Seeing and Hearing”, hosted by Apartment Project in Neukölln from March 30th to April 5th, 2018. This is an outcome of a workshop held by Loading, a Diyarbakır nonprofit art space, at nbk’s Berlin studio residency apartment, during their research visit as part of Mutterzunge.

“absencexpresence” focuses on Asli Narin’s and Gürkan Mıhçı’s 24-hour-experience on Eastern Express train journey, from Ankara to Kars. They took off with the intention of collaboration and art production. As Maurice Merleau-Ponty claims that the painter changes the world into paintings by lending his body to the world*, Asli Narin and Gurkan Mihci takes this phenomena to its maximum in their collaboration.

The exhibition “t-Räume” is showcasing the works produced in more than 10 workshops with young Neuköllners in the years 2016 and 2017. The wide spectrum of works includes Virtual Reality experiments, a poster campaign, chair and dome structures, urban games, music videos and dream holograms.

The prevalent comprehension of (architectural) space tends to focus on (singular) event(s) staged in a certain space. The city, the square, the street, the house, the room of sorts are perceived as spaces where personal, public, and societal relations, such as political struggle, conflict, disagreement, and leisure take place. This kind of comprehension externalizes the relational and the spatial from each other, thus detaches the architectural space from the relations that produce it, or the relations that it produces*. In fact, each such relation produce their (architectural) spatiality, and the architectural space defines the characteristics of these relations. For instance, both the sovereign and the resistance are established and experienced, and transform in a certain space, in accordance with the characteristics of the space**.

This project chases a woman who had neither a very long nor a very deep life. Nazifya Akarsu, died at the age of 35, and left 8 children behind. Her still-living 5 children don’t have much memory about her, and she couldn’t leave too much behind. The only information about her is as following: She is the daughter of a migrant family coming from Kosovo to Turkey in 1923. (more…)

The television channel of ‘SiS’ is employed to bring artist works that use television programme as a form. Television programmes are produced at the set constructed within the exhibition space both before and during the exhibition, contributing to the flow of information during the course. Keeping record of contemporary memory creates a medium that can continue during the exhibition as well.

Drop City began on a rooftop in Kansas, where two young artists, Gene Bernofsky and Clark Richert, dropped art from their studio onto the street. They wanted to make art a part of everyday life. In 1965, together with Jo Ann Bernofsky and Richard Kallweit, they bought a small piece of land in southern Colorado, and were soon joined by other artists, writers and inventors. (more…)

Experimental duo Fezayafirar appears at Apartment Project Berlin for yet another improvised session, where they will go between drone, polyrhythms, noise and soundscapes, bringing together analog electronics, acoustic and DIY instruments. Frances Sander will accompany the duo with live paintings.